Pub Bombings: Bob Warman remembers reporting on the night terror tore through Birmingham
Today's date strikes a special resonance with me. Forty years ago, standing in the old ATV bar, I heard the dull thud of those two bombs as they blew apart the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town.
I scrambled a film crew and ran to the scene trying to get some scale of the enormity of what had happened.
Communications were nowhere near what they are now. No mobile phones, no messaging facilities. A case of grabbing what we could for ITN's News at Ten with scant details, eye witness comment and some guesswork on the extent of death and injury.
At one point I virtually carried the licensee of the Tavern all the way up New Street into the studios for a live interview into the 10.00 news.
Birmingham was a truly frightened city that night with rumours of more planted bombs, taxis making do as makeshift ambulances, sirens wailing into the night.
The memories for me are of a frantic evening of news gathering followed by days and weeks of fractured relations with the city's Irish community - an irony considering its huge contribution to Birmingham.
When I hear the memories of those who lost loved ones it's apparent the wounds run deep even after such an elapse of time. And there are questions that need answers.
Tonight we pay tribute to the dead, injured and the emergency services who showed extraordinary courage.